Back-to-back golds for Kellie Harrington! She was the first boxing champion crowned at Paris 2024 in the purpose-built ring at Roland Garros last night, with an audience of 15,000 cheering her on. The Irish fighter retained the lightweight crown she won in Tokyo three years ago by beating China’s Wenlu Yang 4-1. The 34-year-old plans to retire now saying afterwards that “there are no more mountains, that’s it. I’m done now. The next chapter is going to be my life chapter. It’s for me and Mandy”. Miriam Lord was with the crowd watching the fight in a raucous Diamond Park in Dublin’s inner city while Mary Hannigan was following it on TV from behind the couch like most of the rest of us. Malachy Clerkin writes that Harrington stands alone, “her gold medals unanswerable and untouchable ... the greatest Irish Olympic boxer there has ever been”.
This morning was a busy one on the track for Team Ireland with Sarah Lavin storming out of the blocks to finish second in her 100m hurdles heat and qualify for the semi-finals. Mark English produced one of his strongest performances, almost winning his 800m heat and comfortably getting into the semis. Sophie O’Sullivan and Sarah Healy found it tougher in the 1,500m repechage, neither doing enough to make it through, O’Sullivan again missing out by one spot. There was all kinds of drama in the men’s 5,000m heats. The first ended in acrimony with several athletes falling in a tightly bunched finish while, in the second, Ireland’s Brian Fay couldn’t quite find the gas in home straight to make the final. This evening, all eyes will turn to Rhasidat Adeleke and the women’s 400m semi-finals. The 21-year-old cruised through her heat and runs in the first of three races this evening at 7.45pm. Ian O’Riordan writes that tonight should reveal a lot more about the potential destination of the medals come Friday night’s final. Adeleke believes she can be among them. You can follow the race and all the buildup live on our blog.
There was disappointment also for Jack Woolley, the Tallaght taekwondo star. He lost to his Azeri opponent in the last 16 and now has to hope Gashim Magomedov makes the final which would give Woolley a chance in the bronze medal repechage. Malachy Clerkin heard from Woolley after the fight: “I don’t think anybody comes to the Olympics to not get a medal. I’ve obviously very devastated but if you’d told me six months ago that I’d be here in the first place, I would have laughed at you.”
Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow were out on the course this morning for the first round of the women’s golf, while Finn Lynch’s rescheduled medal race gets under way this afternoon. Sadly his medal hopes are most likely over.
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It was not to be for Irish showjumpers Shane Sweetnam and Daniel Coyle yesterday in a nail-biting individual show jumping final in Versailles, on a course which proved so demanding that only the three riders of 30 finalists managed to go clear. Coyle’s medal hopes came unstuck when his mare Legacy lost a shoe and he lost a stirrup. They were still clear until the difficult final line but he clipped the second and had three more down and the 30-year-old Derry man retired his horse at that point. Sweetnam started and finished well but came unstuck early at the 5th and finished with 12 faults, in 22nd place.
Ireland’s women’s pursuit team of Mia Griffin, Lara Gillespie, Kelly Murphy and Alice Sharpe knocked over three seconds off the national record in the qualifying round of the Team Pursuit at the Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome, but narrowly missed out on progressing to the next round. The quartet, all racing in their first Olympics, finished the 4km race in 4:12.447 to come ninth overall.
Away from Paris, Gordon Manning spoke to Cork camogie captain Molly Lynch who is chasing two titles in seven days after defending her Poc Fada crown earlier this week. After much controversy over the GAAGO streaming service, the association has invited “expressions of interest” for media rights to the games currently shown there. Manchester City agreed a deal to sell Julián Álvarez to Atlético Madrid for €95 million, while Andy Hunter examined Liverpool’s transfer plans for the rest of the window. Sin é.
Irish in action at the Olympics today:
- 8am: Stephanie Meadow (Golf – women’s tournament first round)
- 9.15am: Sarah Lavin (Athletics – women’s 100m hurdles heats). Second in heat four, qualified for Friday’s semi-final.
- 10.10am: Brian Fay (Athletics – men’s 5,000m heats). 13th in heat two, failed to qualify for Saturday’s final.
- 10.48am: Jack Woolley (Taekwondo – men’s 58kg qualifying). Lost to Gashim Magomedov, must wait to see if he goes into repechage this evening.
- 10.55am: Mark English (Athletics – men’s 800m heats). Second in heat two, qualified for Friday’s semi-final.
- 11.17am: Leona Maguire (Golf – women’s individual first round)
- 11.45am: Sophie O’Sullivan (Athletics – women’s 1,500m repechage). Fourth in heat one, failed to qualify for Thursday’s semi-finals.
- 11.57am: Sarah Healy (Athletics – women’s 1,500m repechage). Fourth in heat one, failed to qualify for Thursday’s semi-finals.
- 12.13pm: Finn Lynch (Sailing – rescheduled men’s dinghy medal race)
- 7.45pm: Rhasidat Adeleke (Athletics – women’s 400m semi-finals)
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